Provenance chain

The provenance chain explains how an outcome was produced. It borrows the entity/activity/agent pattern from W3C PROV, but keeps Agent Evidence focused on portable refs and agent execution.

Node types

Node	Examples
entity	prompt, input part, retrieved source, tool result, artifact, answer, claim, dataset row, policy, exported file.
activity	model request, retrieval, tool call, human approval, verification check, review, export, redaction, peer handoff.
agent	user, assistant, runtime, tool server, reviewer, policy system, model provider, peer agent, organization.

Edge rules

• An output entity SHOULD be generated_by an activity.
• An activity SHOULD list inputs it used.
• A transformed entity SHOULD link to its source through derived_from.
• Human or automated responsibility SHOULD use attributed_to or associated_with.
• Provenance edges SHOULD carry timestamps, confidence, and source ids in the edge itself.
• Peer or remote systems SHOULD preserve native ids instead of rewriting them as local-only ids.

Runtime and telemetry linkage

Provenance nodes MAY reference runtime_id, session_id, thread_id, turn_id, task_id, run_id, tool_call_id, artifact_id, trace_id, and span_id. These ids are correlation refs, not replacements for provenance semantics.